Journalists tour the conference palace dedicated to the coming Arab League summit in Baghdad, Iraq, on Monday, April 11, 2011. Iraq’s top diplomat says he’s been assured by Mideast leaders that they will attend the Arab League’s summit in Baghdad next month despite unrest in their nations. (Photo credit: Karim Kadim / AP)

By Hamid AhmedandSinan Salaheddin
April 11, 2011

BAGHDAD — Iraq’s top diplomat said Monday his country’s security forces are ready to protect Mideast leaders who will attend the Arab League summit in May, even as bombings and shootings across Iraq killed 20 people, including four policemen. …

There had been doubts over whether Baghdad was stable enough to host the annual meeting of Arab heads of state. … The summit was postponed from March.

But even as [Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar] Zebari was heralding Iraq’s security, extremists launched bombings in Baghdad, the western city of Fallujah and on a farm in eastern Diyala province — underscoring their continued success at sowing violence.

The deadliest attack Monday struck a Shiite family that recently returned to their farmland located in a swath of disputed territories in northern Iraq. Eight people were killed by bombs buried among their crops, including three women — one of whom was pregnant, said a policeman at the scene in Diyala province. …

In the western city of Fallujah, once an al-Qaida stronghold, two policemen died when a car bomb they were trying to diffuse blew up near a school and market around 11 a.m. Fifteen minutes later, a second blast nearby killed four civilians and injured 20 who had rushed to the scene.

In Baghdad, four civilians were killed and 11 others were wounded during morning rush hour when the minibus they were riding in hit a roadside bomb. Two more policemen were shot to death in separate attacks Monday afternoon. …

One year ago today, I reported that Sarah Palin criticized Barack Obama’s foreign policy on the eve of the president’s nuclear counterproliferation summit focused on keeping nukes out of the hands of terrorists.

Two years ago today, on April 11, 2009, I featured a discussion by Minnesota Public Radio political analysts Todd Rapp and Tom Horner on whether Rep. Michele Bachmann was a liability to the Republican Party.